"Every Time a Bell Rings, an Angel Gets Its Wings"

A cherished Christmas classic that is for America what A Christmas Carol is for Britain, It's a Wonderful Life is the inspiring story of a disillusioned man who learns just how important his life has been. Jimmy Stewart, the perennial simple, good-hearted everyman, stars as George Bailey, a role that is largely considered to be his crowning glory. Unpretentious as always, Stewart portrays the small-town man who has had it with his provincial life in Bedford Falls. In fact, after he finds out he's about to lose the family business, he's had it with life in general. On a dark and lonely Christmas Eve, George leaves his house in a rage, prepared to take his own life. But higher powers have other plans for George...

This is the movie's turning point, and it takes quite a while to build up to that pivotal moment. We see George as a young boy saving his brother's life after a wintery disaster. We watch him meet, woo and eventually marry Mary (Donna Reed). We witness his father's death and we see him take over Bailey Building and Loan. George's life story, up until that fateful Christmas Eve, is shown to us as it is shown to Clarence, George's guardian angel who appears through the first part of the movie as a pulsating star.

George is happily married and the father of several doting children. He is well-liked by just about everybody in town. But when his life seems to crumble right before his very eyes, it's too much for George. He snaps. His youngest daughter comes home from school sick and he chews out her teacher over the telephone. His older daughter is playing the piano and he bellows for her to cut out the racket. His temper is flaring, and after nearly starting a major barroom brawl, George prepares himself to jump off the bridge.

Clarence comes to the rescue just in time, though his arrival is clumsy to say the least. When the bumbling being tells George that he is an angel about to get his wings and he has been sent to show George the value of his life, he is received with an extra-large dose of skepticism. But George has little choice but to see what Clarence wishes him to see, so he allows himself to be taken along by this eccentric fellow.

Now, while Ebeneezer Scrooge's spirits showed him how miserable he made everyone around him, Clarence demonstrated to George the positive influence he had on the whole town. It's a sort of Scrooge situation in reverse. In order to be convinced that his life was worth living, George had to be shown what the world would be like had he not been born. It is said that "All that is necessary for evil to exist is that good people do nothing." George could have done nothing his entire life, but he didn't. He made a difference in hundreds of lives and had no idea of the lasting repercussions.

It takes a long time to go through two lives, and by the end of the movie you may be sharing some of George's exhaustion yourself. But every extra minute is worth it and makes the grand finale all the grander. Perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas, though certainly worth watching at any time of the year, It's a Wonderful Life will cause you to re-examine your life and count your blessings. And maybe, just maybe, when you hear the Christmas bells heralding the arrival of Christmas Day, it will be your guardian angel who is receiving his wings.